Porn - Getting Your Fill?
"I spent part of my morning looking at pornography with the President of the Baptist Union of Australia."
So says fellow blogger and West Aussie radio announcer Rodney Olsen on his blog, The Journey.
It's a perennial topic, specially considering the impact the Internet has had on the porn industry. To say the least, people who would never have walked into a newsagent and picked up Hustler or Play Boy can download the latest hardcore videos and images from their own homes while remaining completely anonymous. What has always been a dirty little habit isn't getting any cleaner, even though society is definitely more accepting of it.
I won't run over all the stats again about how many pastors viewed porn in the last week - I'm a guy and I know the temptation when it comes to the naked female form, and if you're a guy I'm sure you will know exactly what I mean. So rather than wallowing in the figures let's take a proactive approach and check out some websites which might be worth looking at.
The first is XXXChurch. These guys have some FREE (yes that's right - I have seen plenty of "Christian" filtering services out there that will happily take their cut of the porn millions, but this is the first free one I have come across) software that I think is great. Check it out, and while you're there check out their home page - interesting in a weird kinda way.
Here, the guys from Youth Specialities talk about new (and old) approaches to accountability - while not directly porn related accountability is (IMO) central to the whole "church & porn" issue. The church in the recent past hasn't handled accountability well at all. The "stop it or you will go blind" ("...or be ostracised", "...or we won't talk to you", "...or you can't take communion") model is still alive and well (and really makes me want to talk to "you" about my struggles!).
If you know of any other helpful sites stick them in the comments section.
See you later :)
3 comments:
What do you consider to be 'pornography' Andrew?
I can't think of a definitive answer. Maybe its buying into a lie of some sort?
Here's a dictionary definition.
"1) Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
2) The presentation or production of this material."
I think that pretty much sums it up.
I can see where you're coming from though. I think porn is deceitful, it does sell a lie.
More broadly, and along your line of thinking, perhaps deparment store sales catalogues could also be described as pornographic? They try and get people to buy into or keep them hooked on, the lie of materalism. What do you reckon?
Sorry I haven't responded to your other post and our emails - I haven't forgotten about our discussion and will try and email you again next week with some thoughts.
I think thats a good analogy of sales catalogues Andrew. Porn and sales/marketing seem to have a lot in common; primarily they both boast (usually implicitly) of benefits that they simply cannot deliver.
So how do you think it is that men become enticed by such folly? - Are we gullible, needy, or even deranged? I don't think we can simply blame the female form for this...
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